Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Simmons Chat: Not Me!

I interrupt the non-stop T.O. coverage to briefly clarify a detail from Bill Simmons' chat today on ESPN.com (which I didn't know about until someone emailed me that my name came up).

Most important: I did NOT write in to the chat. It was an imposter. (And all my Morning Quickie chat participants already knew it wasn't me, I presume.) I can't stress this enough. That's not how I operate, and it's a little annoying that someone did that.

Here's the exchange in its entirety, submitted without further comment:

Luke (Nashville)How many more years do you see yourself being the Sports Guy if you do leave the Disney family are you going to set up a blog similar to what Shanoff has done?

BILL SIMMONSWho's Shanoff?

Shanoff (NY)That. Hurts.

BILL SIMMONSJust. Kidding. Although I wish you had worked as hard on the Quickie as you do on the blog.

Actually, some response from me is probably merited. But I'm going to take the high road. It's WAY too easy to play media critic. Trust me.

Especially after he criticised Whitlock earlier in the chat. Just another example of Simmons calling the kettle black.

Whitlock isn't black?!?

j/k

Here were my other comments on this topic from the other threads:

While I'm not Simmons, my take on the Shanoff comments is that Bill has never been fond of the Instant History shtick; he prefers longer, more uniform thoughts (this is the guy who can write 900+ words on movies like Varsity Blues). So I think by 'working harder' he was looking for more drawn-out thoughts and less shotgun firing approaches to doing the DQ.

...

Well, to be honest, his followup on Shanoff wasn't really negative; he just likes the blog better than the DQ. I don't see an issue with that, as I feel the same way.

I think the reason he didn't want to leave it at 'Who's Shanoff' was because he didn't want people to accuse him of being an ESPN snob, i.e. if you're not on ESPN you're nobody.

Dan just wanted to say I asked Bill the question because he was featured in an SI article about 6 months ago about internet journalists. In the article he said that he was only going to be on Page 2 for another year or so and was just curious about any future plans that he has.

Page2 is just a hot-bed of drama these days. ;) No Quickie, and no reason given why. No Whitlock, though everyone knows why (though if slamming Scoop Jackson/Mike Lupica is wrong, I wouldn't want to be right either). Simmons having a little joke at Shanoff's expense (though perhaps he shouldn't be talking about anyone else's work ethic/habits) and expressing disappointment in Whitlock. All we need is for Easterbrook to make a new round of potentially anti-Semitic comments and get wiped off the face of the site again, or for Tim Keown and DJ Gallo to start a blood feud or something.

I think with his newfound burst of popularity, Simmons has just reached the "I'm Keith Hernandez" status that he likes to mention.

I've noticed lately he's just begun ripping on everyone and everything as he pleases, b/c I think in the back of his mind he knows he's not doing the ESPN writing gig for much longer. Remember in the past he would always stop himself with a joke before actively ripping on play-by-play announcers and studio guys... now he'll just tear into any announcer or studio guy with no remorse, including guys like Joe Theismann who work for ESPN!

Shanoff I figured that it wasn't you but I am so glad that people brought you up because I never really pay attention to much and thought that after you left the Daily Quickey we I had lost your writings for good. I have already bookmarked your blog, have registered so as not to be one of those weirdo's and have even decided to try blogging for my self. So thanks!

I also took the "Who's Shanoff?" as a direct relationship to when Stephen A. Smith responded to Isiah Thomas with a "Who's Bill Simmons?" When Simmons was even scheduled to be on the show at one point.

I took the first thing to be a joke, and the second to be a compliment, though a bit back-handed, about the new blog.

Jesus, some of you people are such babies. Even you, Dan. Actually, ESPECIALLY you. YOu're a little hurt that someone jokingly put your name into a chat? HURT? Grow up. I could see you being hurt by the diss, MAYBE, but being hurt by someone responding with TWO WORDS as you is just ridiculous.

thirdstringjd - you're just as bad. Really out of line? Did all guys in America get castrated and lose their sense of humor or WHAT? This is what guys do - bust each other's balls.

Page 2 is a collection of stream-of-consciousness hacks whose sole purpose is to help cube-dwellers' days go by quicker. The fact that no one who has ever written for that site realizes this is the saddest thing about Page 2. When us office workers go home for the day, we return to our real lives while you guys battle it out to see who's king of the dorks.

One thing that I imagine merits considering is the fact that this little exchange came about 3.25 hours into a session in which B.S. responded to probably, what, 150, 200, out of over 30,000 submitted posts.

If The Guy had said something really hurtful and offensive, this would be no excuse; however, since he came up with two tiny offhand remarks, one of which seems a little snooty, and the other of which seems to me as a regular reader to be just funny, I think the sheer volume and perhaps fatigue are good reasons to place a moratorium on the DS-BS Blood Feud that some dividers seem to be egging on.

"Who's Shanoff?" Does that really offend anybody? If we think about the aforementioned "Who's Bill Simmons?" episode (good job, jason), and the recent hurried and unexplained exodus of the Quickie, and possibly the fact that BS might not be entirely comfortable discussing his plans, I think "Who's Shanoff?" is a perfectly reasonable, Sports-Guy-ish, funny way to blow off that question. Again, maybe we can forgive Bill for not considering all the possible interpretations of these two words, given the circumstances of the conversation.

"That. Hurts." - I'm sure a majority of the audience was aware that this was spuriously attributed. I imagine we were mostly just jealous that we didn't come up with it. I mean, it's fairly clever. Yuh?

"Just. Kidding." - obviously a bow of appreciation. I mean, c'mon.

"I wish you had worked as hard on the Quickie as you do on the blog." - A little stickier, and the part that I won't entirely defend The Guy on. I mean, maybe he loves the daily Q-Style wrapup + 4 new and exciting posts per day aspect, and wishes the Q hadn't been static every day after 3 AM Hollywood time. Otherwise, I don't even know what he could mean. Really. What I'm left with is, he's either lazy and only checked out .com once a week when he was posting (zing?), and only saw one Quickie per week, or he's crazy and just doesn't remember the way things were.

So I'm not sure on this one. But unless BS knows something I sure don't know about the reason for the necessity of this blog, and was being snarky about it, it sounds to me like a pretty meaningless little stab.

I think ESPN.com as a whole is on its way down. It has become so bloated with extra junk that people don't want to read. The stuff people actually want to read is for "insiders". The whole site is becoming a joke. Kinda like ESPN in general. What happened to actually showing sports highlights on Sportscenter? Or actually showing sports?

Simmons is a smart guy. I doubt this is a jab at DS, but a jab at the readers and the impersonator. By asking "who's shanoff," it's almost like saying, "who are you," knowing that the commenter is not Shanoff

when i read it i didn't take it as a shot at you, dan, but in good fun. although one of my buddies thought it was a cheap shot. perhaps he was bitchy b/c of your critique of his performance on the colbert report?

I feel I need to clarify something since I do admit to sounding a bit touchy about this subject today.

Taken as a single quote the remark that Simmons made does not seem like a big deal. It's taken in the whole context of things he has been writing lately and how he handles the whole blog culture and when you factor that in that is where my anger comes in.

Simmons looks down his nose at blogs, going so far as to call them vindictive and evil - even though he himself became famous because of his vicious criticism of the Boston media in a blog like setting back in his old Digital City Boston days and on the AOL Messege Boards where I started reading him.

In the blog interview that Whitlock did he talked about Simmons in the same sentence as Ralph Wiley and Hunter S. Thompson. Simmons himself has taken backhanded shots at Scoop Jackson but apparently when Whitlock - someone who complimented Simmons on his way out the door - said something valid about Scoop Simmons thought that was out of line?

The shot at Dan put me over the top - I really took it as Simmons saying that Dan cares more about this blog then he ever tried with the DQ but maybe I was just hypersensitive because of recent comments Bill has made.

Jokes and ribbing I can understand - but there is definately something to the "I'm Keith Hernandez" attitude that Simmons has now.

Simmons didn't 'take a shot' at Whitlock. He said he was disappointed that Whitlock left and burned as many bridges as possible..which, cmon..is exactly what Whitlock did.Not saying I disagree with Whitlock, Simmons obviously thinks that he should have taken a higher road, is all.And Simmons has given props to Shanoff in a column before...so...meh.

I like DS. But the DQ did appear half-assed at times. It took me a long time to appreciate IH, though I don't always like it. hehe

Half assed? You've got to be kidding me! You try getting your ass up before the butt crack of dawn EVERY morning and write 1,000 words on the day before in sports. Simmons is a no-talent ass clown that still can't come down from the rim job he got from a tranny hooker in Vegas with "Sully" and "Bug." Shanoff rules...as does Leitch at Deadspin

Your up late, baby up? Or are you getting a later schedule now you dont have to wake up early? Or did BS comments piss you off and now you are on an all night bender. No Worries, like T.O., there is NO bad publicity.

Never take anything Simmons says as serious. To start a pissing contest over this is just stupid. The Whitlock comment wasn't an attack at Whitlock, and it wasn't an attack at people who read blogs either (as the kiss-me-suzy blog says.)

Now granted if I were the one the comment was made about I wouldn't be overly happy that someone said I should have put more effort into my work, but that's me.

Although I have to agree with the people who say that ESPN.com is going down the toilet. Page 2 isn't really worth looking at since the only things I read there were Whitlock, Simmons, and Shanoff. An I hate how the good in depth analysis stuff requires being an insider. I still haven't read the Rose Bowl MQ because of that!

I hardly read Simmons anymore. I always skipped over his reviews of TV shows and movies. I don't know of any guy who watched Friends or 90210 or whatever that new show he watches is - and the Karate Kid was a kid's movie. He came up with some good lines regarding the NBA but lately his articles seem a waste of time.

I used to log in to page 2 for the daily quickie but now I just log in to this blog each morning to catch the latest sports news.

Dan, just curious, do you have a steady income now? I guess you write this blog as a way of keeping in contact with your fans - and I appreciate it - but what is going on in regard to a steady income?

I can understand why D.S. would be little ticked off at Simmons' comments....but hey, regardless if it was a friendly joke or a snub....Simmons can say what he wants. Shanoff has always said what he wants in the DQ...recounting any predictions he made that came true, just to point out the few occassions he has been right...telling us who is worth rooting for and who isn't...even holding moral court and holier than thou pontifications, albeit in his brief writing style...if someone doesn't want to be the target of occassional criticism, they shouldnt put forth their thoughts in public forums...quit whining, Dan.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.